With the midterm elections less than one month away, the message for all Americans, 18 and older, remains the same: make sure you’re registered and be sure to vote.
Here in the District, while the decades-old battle for statehood has yet to be won, many Washingtonians anticipate that a change is imminent as voters will elect a new mayor to take over the reins.
But other citywide and local positions are also up for grabs including attorney general; seven of 13 D.C. Council seats (Wards 1, 3, 5 and 6); four of eight State Board of Education seats; and multiple ANC seats throughout the city’s single-member districts.
Meanwhile, on the federal level, voters will choose a new U.S. House of Representatives member of Congress to replace Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, and one shadow House and Senate representative and senator, respectively.
So, while we cannot predict the outcome in these races, we can definitely say that a change is going to come. The question, however, remains whether eligible voters will exercise their Constitutional right and turn in their ballot.
Some voters may choose to vote along party lines while others may give the nod to the incumbent candidate. But there’s an unknown factor that must also be considered: those who decide not to vote at all.
We contend that even by not voting, each individual still impacts the outcome of every race. Consider what happened two years ago in the 2024 presidential election between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.
With 270 Electoral College votes required to win, Trump won 312-226 with 49.8% of the popular vote compared to Harris at 48.3%. The actual number by votes, just over two million, illustrates why every vote counts. Trump won with 77,302,580 popular votes while Harris lost with 75,017,613 popular votes.
Black baby boomers and millennials may remember the good old days when voting was a communitywide event. Parents walked to the polls with their children in tow, who watched as their mothers and fathers participated in an activity in which many of their grandparents were denied. Black Church congregants joined “Souls to the Polls” movements and made voting a daylong celebration and responsibility.
African Americans were convinced that by casting their vote, they could become the change that they desired. They were fed up with false promises or urges to be patient a little while longer.
As American citizens, they believed they had a right to demand and expect better, if not fully equal, representation at all levels of government.
Ward 4 Councilmember Janeese Lewis George, the highly favored Democratic mayoral candidate for Washington, D.C., asked voters during her recent citywide listening tour to bring their solutions to the table.
Lewis George asserted that for some, the easier road may be to complain about what’s wrong in D.C. and to criticize those who are in power.
But she concludes that criticisms alone will not reverse or correct the policies enacted by current administrations under which so many Washingtonians and other Americans now suffer. Solutions, however, will.
So, we must all vote and then hold accountable those who win their races. We can be part of the change we desire.
